Federal investment will advance discovery and applied science across the health research spectrum

By Emily Leighton

At a time when millions of Canadians are struggling to find a family doctor, a newly funded research project is exploring the business realities shaping family practice in Canada.

It's one of 11 projects awarded to researchers at Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry through the latest project grants competition from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

With four hospital-based projects, researchers received a total of $8.8 million in federal funding.

“These grants reflect the breadth and strength of health research across our School,” said Robert Bartha, PhD, vice dean of research and innovation. “From fundamental discovery to applied and population-level studies, researchers are tackling today’s most pressing health challenges and advancing work that will improve care, policy and outcomes for patients and communities.”

Examining the business of family medicine

With the CIHR funding, Maria Mathews, PhD, professor in family medicine and epidemiology and biostatistics, and a collaborative team are focusing on a critical but often misunderstood aspect of primary care: how family doctors are paid.

The goal is to help inform workforce planning, as shortages in comprehensive family medicine continue to affect Canadians.

While public health insurance programs provide detailed information on physician billings, less is known about how those billings translate into actual income. The business arrangements that shape family medicine practices, including ownership structures, incorporation, and academic or corporate affiliations, play a significant role in determining physician income.

“Income influences family physicians’ work-life decisions, including whether they want to practise comprehensive family medicine, how many patients they serve in their practice, and when they want to retire,” said Mathews, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Primary Health Care and Health Equity. “All these decisions affect workforce capacity – that is, how many family physicians we need to care for the population.”

The project brings together a multidisciplinary team of researchers, family physicians and policymakers.

“We want to describe the elements of the business arrangements, look at which ones stack together, and understand why family physicians have chosen their specific arrangement,” said Mathews. “We also want to understand how those decisions affect the way family physicians work and how long they remain in practice.”

CIHR Project Grants

Shehzad Ali
Severity weighting of health outcomes for economic evaluation: from methods to application

Wataru Inoue
Elucidating neuro-network interactions regulating stress sensitivity

Maria Mathews
Up to BAT: Examining the association between ‘business arrangement types’ and family physician compensation, and workforce outcomes

Silvia Penuela
Proteoforms of PANX1 as novel regulators in melanoma

Rithwik Ramachandran
Proteinase Activated Receptor (PAR) regulation of YAP/TAZ signaling in liver disease

John Ronald
Molecular Imaging Tools for Visualizing of Alpha-1 Anti-Trypsin Deficiency

CIHR Project Grants funded via London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute

Naveen Poonai
Anxiolysis for Laceration Repair in Children: Open-Label Multicentre Adaptive Trial

Pavel Roshanov
DIALysis with EXpanded solute removal (DIALEX): A large, simple randomized controlled trial to evaluate the major health effects of expanded versus conventional hemodialysis

Luciano Sposato
EAST-STROKE: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Rhythm Control vs. Standard of Care for Atrial Fibrillation in Acute Ischemic Stroke

CIHR Priority Announcement

Steven Laviolette
Understanding the Impacts of Prenatal Cannabinoid Exposure on the Prefrontal-Hippocampal Network and Developing Neurolipidome: Implications for Long-Term Neuropsychiatric Risk and Intervention Strategies

CIHR Priority Announcement funded via Lawson Research Institute at St. Joseph’s Health Care London

Kristin Clemens
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